. >> lew also responded to concerns the yen's rapid decline might encourage governments to lower the value of their currencies to boost domestic exports. >> the treasury has had a long-standing position through administrations of both parties over many years that a strong dollar is in the best interest of promoting u.s. growth, productivity, and competitiveness. if confirmed i would not change that policy. >> and as for markets, u.s. stock markets ended mixed with the dow jones industrial average down just about a quarter of a percent at 13,982. as for the tech-heavy nasdaq, that ended up 3,196, actually, up a third of a percent. well, for more on how stocks are trading here, let's go to ramin mellegard, who's at the tokyo stock exchange. so ramin, we're really seeing a bit of a seesaw movement in stocks, one day up, the next day down. but we've also had some key gdp data for here in japan this morning. any direction for that? >> very good morning to you, ai. yes indeed. as catherine mentioned just earlier, we did have the preliminary gdp for the october to december period 2012, whic